Sh*t like Hellboy, Savage Dragon and Usagi are still around. Cerebus had a long run. TMNT would have carried on without the massive exposure that going corporate gave them.

I thought about that, but who knows if E&L would've had the drive to keep going or if they would've ended on a good note somewhere in the late 90s. The latter is probably more likely given the various Mirage breaks and hiatuses.

Also, Spawn is still around funny enough. Mcfarlane left two years back I believe.

Yeah the whole "TMNT wouldn't still exist if it wasn't for Fred Wolf" thing is a total fallacy, there could have still been TMNT cartoons, movies or some other spike in popularity later on. Saying that this one particular adaptation had to exist for a secure future is utterly absurd, all it's existance really means is that it happened sooner.

Funny thing how this argument usually only comes up when the quality of the FW cartoon comes into question... Even funnier is how it doesn't have anything to do with quality.

While I'd like to see a TMNT series or film that is more mature and truer to the original comics, I think that the damage done to the series by the FW abortion is irreversible because since the old cartoon became popular, people have seen the Turtles as goofy, rainbow bandanna wearing, pizza addicts, who talk like surfers and while it is possible that an adaptation might be made that is more adult and truer to the comics, the damage to the Turtles reputation has already been done.

I personally feel like the "well known" persona comes more from the Next Mutation, personally. Or at least the third movie. The "pizza addicted surfer speech" being applied to all of them wasn't really a thing until the original turtlemania was on its deathbed in the mid-90's as far as I can tell. However, because people remember that better, it's what stuck.

My personal thoughts of their general attitude was looking at a bizarre situation, saying "Welp...time to deal with this" and just going with it. At least very early on. Seasons 1-3.